Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Spotify has announced an overhaul of its Fan Insights service, renaming it Spotify For Artists and pumping a whole load of new functionality into the dashboard that is accessible to artists and managers, even when a label or distributor actually supplies their content to the streaming service. Verified artists and their managers will now have greater control over the look of their Spotify profile as well as having access to all kinds of fancy data.

Data wise, some of the info available via Spotify For Aritsts was already in Fan Insights, though some of it is new. The dashboard includes demographic and location information about an artist’s listeners, including a real-time feed of said listeners. It will also provide data on the performance of individual tracks and how they are performing in playlists.

“What we’re seeing is that artists of all sizes need the help”, former Lady Gaga manager turned Spotify artist liaison guy Troy Carter tells Billboard. “Someone who is one of the top 50 artists in the world, they’re still trying to figure out a lot of things about their fans as it relates to specific demographics, how to reach them, how to sell more tickets, how to appeal to audiences that you may not necessarily appeal to on typical radio. But what we’re seeing as you go down the stream, artists who more typically self-serve, they also need more tools. We feel like Spotify For Artists is providing them”.

While he was in chatting mode, Carter also denied the long-running rumours that Spotify plans to move into label territory by signing artists itself, saying: “There’s a lot of speculation that we’re going into the label business, and I think we couldn’t be further from it. Our thing is, how do we support our partners on every end and allow them to use Spotify as a distribution platform, a place where they can reach more fans, and just be the most value-added partner that they’re gonna find”.

Speaking of chatting, Facebook has just announced a bunch of new extensions for its Messenger app, including for Spotify and Apple Music to allow easier sharing of music.

Facebook already did this for Spotify just over a year ago, but seemingly this time it’s going to do it in a less half-arsed way. It’ll allow you to search for songs to share without leaving the Messenger app, and to get a recommended playlist based on your mood (or the person you’re chatting with). No, you are not dreaming, all of your wildest dreams really have come true.